Apparatus for clamping printing strips on a holder



W. R. ALLEN Nov. 5, 1929.

APPARATUS FOR CLAMPING- PRI NTING STRIPS ON A HOLDER Filed NOV. 12, 1926 6 Sheets-Sheet w. R. ALLEN Nov. 5, 1929.

APPARATUS FOR CL AMPING PRINTING STRIPS ON A HOLDER Filed Nov. '12. 1926 6 Sheets-Sheet 2 Nov. 5,1929. w. RA ALLEN 1,734,707

APPARATUS FOR CLAMPING PRINTING STRIPS ON A HOLDER Filed Nov. 12, 1926 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 aw r924 Nov. 5, 1929. w. R. ALLEN 1,734,707

7 APPARATUS FOR CLAMPING PRINTING STRIPS ON A HOLDER Filed Nov. 12. 1926 6 Sheets-Sheet 4 Nov. 5, 1929.

w. R. ALLEN APPARATUS FOR CLAMPING PRINTING STRIPS ON A HOLDER Fild Nov. 12. 1926 6 Sheets-Sheet 5 gme'nko'a 79M; aw Wei Nov. 5, 1929. w. R. ALLEN 1,734,707

I APPARATUS FOR 'CLAMPING PRINTING STRIPS ON A HOLDER v F'il ed Nov. 12, 1926 e Sheets-Sheet 6 Patented Nov. 5, 1929 WILLIAM R. ALLEN, OF HUDSON, OHIO, ASSIGNOR' TO THE AMERICAN MULTIGRAPI-I COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO APPARATUS FOR CLAMPING PRINTING STRIPS ON A HOLDER I Application filed November 12, 1926. Serial No. 147,927.

Patent No. 1,438,580 granted December 12, 1922, to my assignee, The American Multigraph Company as assignee of Clifton Chisholm, shows and claims an assembled printing form, comprising a holder with rows of overhanging projections and embossed printing strips surmounting the pro jections, and having inwardly directed edge flanges extending beneath the projections. With such composite printing device, the strips are mounted on the holder by being slid lengthwise thereon. In order that they may be readily slid into place it is desirable that they be slightly loose on the holder. It results from this that means should be provided for preventing the strips slipping longitudinally to prevent their inadvertent displacement and it has been proposed by Mr. Chisholm to effect this by indenting the edges of the mounted strips and thus bind them on the holder. The object of the present invention is to provide a simple machine for readily performingsuch indenting oper ation and binding several strips simultaneously on the holder.

My machine is well adapted for use where the assembled printing'form comprises an address plate such as is illustrated, in'the patent referredto and as improved by the features embodied in Patent No. 1,438,582 of B. J. Craig. The particular embodiment of the machine shown in the drawings is designed to coact with a channel-shaped address plate of the general character referred to but having features specificallycovered in several patents of my assignee The American Multigraph Company; for instance Patents Nos. 1,649,608 of J. W. Macklin and 1,628,630 and 1,628,631 of H. C. Osborne.

My machine in the form shown receives such plates in astack in a magazine and at each operation feeds a plate to a peculiarly arran ed press, which operates to bind all the T strips at one operation, after which, the completed device is discharged. My invention is hereinafter more fully explained in connection with the drawings and its essential characteristics summarized in the claims. In the drawings, Flg. 1 IS a s1de elevatlon of my machine; Fig. 2 is a plan thereof; Fig.

3 is a vertical cross-section one larger scale on the plane indicated on the line 3 30f Figs. .1 and 2; Fig. 4 is a longitudinal vertical section on a plane indicated on the. line 4:4c of Fig. 2; Fig. 5 is a horizontal section on a plane indicated on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3; Fig. 6 is a vertical section on a plane indicated on the line 6-6 of Fig. 3; Fig. 7 is a detail illustrating the. latch for controlling the press plunger; Fig. 8 is-a vertical section through. the plunger head and anvil on the line 88 of Fig. 8; Fig. 9 is a cross-section of the part shown in Fig. 8on a plane indicated onthe line 99 0f Fig. 8; 1 0 is a fragmentary View of a portion of the parts shown'inFig. 9 after the clamping head has moved down to its innermost. position; Fig. 11 is a fragmentary. perspective of an. embossed strip after its edges have been indented to clamp it in place; Fig.12 is a perspectiverofan address plate on which surmounting strips have been clamped by a machine of the present invention. l

In Fig. 12, I have shown at A a sheet metal address platerholder of inverted channel shape having sides A and edge beads a and longitudinal upwardly extending corrugations a from the top of which extend lateral lips a The corrugations and strips are surmounted by embossed printing strips B which have inwardly curled edges Z) adapted to overhang the lips. Fig. 11, 6 indicates indentations formed on the opposite edges of the strips whichthus bind them on the holder with suflicient rigidity to prevent any inadvertent displace ment. The present invention intends to reduce these indentations.

The frame of the machine shown comprises primarily a bed 10 having at its edge a supporting skirt 11 terminating in outwardly extending feet 12. Secured to this frame is an upwardly extending standard 14 carrying the vertically movable indenting mechanism. This indenting mechanism has a head equipped with rows of downwardly facing V- shaped teeth 51 adaptedto engage the edges In this view and in I operating the head 50 will be hereinafter 6 20 to provide a seat for the address plate A.

A pair of longitudinal channels 16 are formed in the bed in the region adjacent the opposite edges of the anvil block, and in these'channels are slidably mounted a pair of bars which are connected together at their outer ends by a block 31 and thus constitute a fork slidably mounted in the frame. The two legs of this fork are retained in place by gibs 33 held on the bed by suitable screws. An operating lever 35 is shown pivoted at 36 to a frame bracket 37 and connected intermediately by a link 38 to the block 31. This furnishes convenient means for reciprocating the fork which operates to feed the address plates into position between the clamping head and the anvil.

The address plates are mounted in a stack one above the other in a magazine comprising the upright plates 40 which have outwardly extending base flanges 41 by which they are secured in place and inwardly extending edge flanges 42 to overhang the ends of the plates. The plates in this magazine rest one on top of the other, the bead a of each plate resting on the bead of the plate next below except the bottom plate, the beads of which rest on the fork legs 30. Near their inner ends, th'eselegs are recessed as at 45 for a depth somewhat greater than that ofthe beads.

It results from the construction described that when the sliding fork is drawn to the extreme left in Fig. 4, the stack of plates will drop so that the beads of the bottom-most plate come into the recesses 45. As the fork is then shoved toward the right, such bottom plateis engaged by the shoulders 46 at the left-hand end of the recesses whereby the plate is advanced over the anvil 20 in position to be acted on by the clamping head. The

' slightly beveled end of the anvil lifts the plate free from the bars (as shown in Fig. 3)

' and the plate rests with its intermediate portion on the anvil. The ortion of the fork at the left of the recesses 1n themeantime conconformity with the curve of the address plate, and having downwardly projecting teeth 51 with inclined sides adapted to engage and indent the edges of strips. The head is supported by a shank 52 shown as pinned to it by a screw pin 53. A pin 5 1 extends through this shank into a slot 77in a vertical sleeve 70, which is slidably mounted in "a hollow arm 19 extending from an intermediate portion of the standard 14. The head is guided by having its rear vertical face engage the vertical ,wall 55 of. a bracket 56 secured to the bed 10.

Mounted in the arm 19 is an oscillating shaft 72 on the outer end of which is an operating handle .71. The shaft carries a gear 7 1 which meshes with rack teeth 75 cut on the rear face of the sleeve 70. This sleeve 70 isnormally held elevated by a spring anchored at its upper end to the standard 14 and at its lower end to clip 81 secured to the sleeve and when the handle 71 is drawn forwardly this racks down the sleeve 70 thus loweringthe head 50 so that its teeth engage the strips on the plate. p

Within the sleeve 70 directly above the shank on the head is a hammer 60 having a shank 61 extending upwardly and slidably guided in a head 18 on the standard 14:. VVithi'n the sleeve at the upper end thereof is a block 83 secured to the sleeve by screws 84L and bearing on the upper end of compression spring 85, whichsurrounds the shank 61 and the lower end of which bears on the hammer 60. Accordingly, as the sleeve moves downwardly in response to a pull on the lever 71, the spring 85 becomes comressed, whereby a tendency is givento the hammer to move forcibly'downwardly and deliver a blow onto the head resting on the strips as soon as the shank 61 is released.

The hammer 60 is normally held elevated by a horizontal pin (Fig. 3) slidably mounted in the frame head 18 and engaging beneath a shoulder 64 on the shank 6-1. This pin 90 has a pair of inclined notches 91 in one side thereof, leaving between them an inclined rib 92 which engages an inclined groove 95 in a vertical pin 96 (Figs. 6 and 7) slidably mounted in the frame head 18. A rod 97 extends downwardly from the pin 96 through a bracket 98 carried by the head 18. A compressed spring 99 surrounds the rod between this bracket and the pin 96 and thus tends to maintain the pin 96 elevated.

Secured to the sleeve 70 is aclip 100 which embraces the rod 97 some distance above its lower end. On the lower portion of this rod are a pair of abutment nuts 101. Now as the sleeve 70 is reachlng its lowermost position,

having compressed the spring 85, the clip 100 v engages the nuts 101 and thereby draws downwardly the pin 96 thus drawing outward the pin 90 and freeing the shank 61. Thereupon the shank with the hammer 60 moves rapidly downwardly under the influence of the compressed spring 85 and delivers a blow to the head 50, the teeth of which rest on the opposite edges of the printing strips B. The direction of the blow is downward and inward on each strip by reason of the inclined faces of the teeth 51. The effect is to form indentations on the edges of the strips to bind the strips onto the holder.

A reference to Fig. 8 shows that the teeth 51 in a row are not spaced in correspondence with the projections a of the address plate but vary therefrom, so that some indentations will be directly opposite lips while others will be between lips. This feature is provided so that it will be impossible-to miss binding the strips upon a lip, for if the strip is located so that one tooth 51 misses a lip, another tooth is sure to register with a lip. Thus the strips are effectively locked to the holder irrespective of their position thereon.

It will be noticed that the force of the blow on the strip is not at all dependent on the force which the operator applies to the lever 71 but is dependent on the amount that the spring 85 is compressed before the hammer is released and thus depends on the adjustment of the nuts 101. Accordingly by adj usting these nuts the force of the 'blow may be regulated as desired. This is important, because too light a blow will not sufiiciently indent the strips and too heavy ablow might distort them.

A comparison of Figs. 9 and 10 illustrates the indenting action. Then the teeth 51 first engage the edges of the strips, as shown in Fig. 9, the under faceof the head 50 between the rows of teeth is clear of the face of the strips. When, however, the head has been forced downward to its extreme position (Fig. 10) by the hammer blow, the teeth have not only indented the side edges of the strips, but the face of the head between the rows of teeth, has come into engagement with the printing characters whereby they are trued of any upward distortion giventhem by the indenting action.

In order to cause the forward ends of the embossed strips to align transversely of the plate before the locking takes place, I have provided a positioning device shown in Figs. 1, 2, 4 and 8. This comprises a vertical plate 110 extending crosswise of the plate, above the anvil and adaptedto form an abutment for the different strips. This plate is carried by a rocking lever 112 pivotally mounted at 113 in a frame block 114 and carrying a roller 115 adapted to be engaged by one of the legs 30. As the fork is moving to the right to carry the plate over the anvil, this fork engages this roller and rocks the frame so that the abutment plate 110 comes down on top of the address plate A beyond the advance end of the strips, and thus as the address plate is advanced, the ends of the strips engage this abutment plate and any that overhang the others are shoved along until they are all in the same starting line.

Following the clamping operation, the lever v 71 is elevated, restoring the sleeve, head and hammer to idle position. That is to say the lower end of the slot 77 in the sleeve engages the under side of the pin 54 and thereby raises the head and hammer. rises, the notch beneath the shoulder 64 comes opposite the locking pin 90, whereupon the spring 99 shoving upwardly on the pin 96 shoves inwardly the pin 90 to engage beneath the shoulder 64 and hold the hammer elevated.

After restoration of the plunger mechanism, the hand lever 35 is moved toward the left, thus withdrawing the fork, the finished plate remaining in the anvil. The outward movement of the fork releases the roller 115 and a spring 117 (Fig. 4) raises the abutment 110 to idle position. To limit the outward movement of the fork I have provided a latch 120pressed upwardly by a spring 121, coming into engagement with a notch 122 in the fork.

At the next forward movement of the fork the completed plate resting idly and unob- As the hammer shank structively on the anvil, is shoved forwardly by a fresh plate engaged by the fork, and thus the completed plate is brought to the extreme right hand end of the bed where the plate drops into the receptacle 48.

- I claim:

1. The combination, with means for bold. ing a holder on which are mounted a pluralityof printing strips, a head adapted to en gage edges of a plurality of such strips and indenting the same tobind them on the holder and hand operated means for delivering a blow of constant force to the head.

2. The combination, of means for feeding a holding device having a printing strip mounted on the face thereof, of hand-operated means for delivering a blow of constant force to the two edges of the strip to bind it on the holder.

3. The combination with means for supportinga holder having a printing strip mounted thereon, of mechanism for adjusting the position of the strip on the holder, and mechanism for binding such adjusted strip in place.

4. The combination with means for supporting an address plate comprising a holder and a plurality of longitudinally slidable strips mounted thereon, of mechanism for adjusting the position of the strips to bring them to the same starting position, and mech anism for simultaneously binding a plurality of such strips on-the holder.

5. The combination of means for feeding printing devices, comprising holders with embossed strips thereon, of mechanism for adjusting the position of the strips on the holder and mechanism for binding such adjusted strips in place. v

porting a holder having upstanding overhanging projections arranged in rows'and embossed printing strips mounted on the re speet've rows, of a reciprocating head adapted to engage different strips simultaneously to bind them on the projections, and means for feeding the holder into registration with the head.

7. The combination with means for supporting a holder. having upstanding overhanging projections arranged in rows and embossed printing strips mounted on the re spective rows, of a head adapted to engage different strips simultaneously to bind them on the projections, means for feeding the holder into r gistration with the head, a

spring adapted to force said head against the strips,- and hand operated mechanism for constraining the spring and then releasing it.

8. The combination, with means for feeding an address plate having surmounting printing strips, of an abutment plate extending transversely of the address plate, means for moving the same into position to engage the enos of strips on the plate, and means for indenting the edges of strips after they have been adjusted by the abutment plate.

9. The combination, with means for feed ing an address plate having surmounting printing strips, of an abutment plate extending transversely of the address plate, means formoving the same into position to engage the ends of strips on the plate, a head having downwardly facing teeth with inclined sides adapted to engage the edges of strips on the plate, and hand-operated means for delivering a blow to said head.

10. The combination of a magazine for address plates having surmounting printing strips, means for simultaneously binding a plurality of such strips, on the plate, and means for feeding the plates with their strips successively from the magazine to the binding means.

11. The combination of a magazine for address plates having surmounting printing strips, means for simultaneously binding a plurality of such strips on the plate and means for feeding the plates: successively from the magazine to the binding means, said binding means having a head with downwardly facing inclined teeth, a hammer adapted to strike arblow to the head, a spring adapted to force the hammer against the head, and means for constraining the spring while the hammer is released and then releasing the hammer.

12. The combination, with a magazine for address plates having a plurality of surmounting embossed printing strips, mechanism for feeding plates with their strips one after another from the magazine, mechanism for adjusting the strips on a fed plate, and mechanism for simultaneously binding a plurality of such strips in place on the plate.

13. The combination of a magazine for address plates having surmounting printing strips to be bound in place, a receptacle for completed strips, mechanism for feeding plates from the bottomof the magazine to the top of the receptacle, and a downwardly acting binding device between the magazine and receptacle and adapted to act on the strips of plates fed from the magazine toward the receptacle.

14,-. The combination of a magazine for ad,- dress plates having surmounting printing strips, mechanism for feeding the bottommost plate from the magazine, mechanism for adjusting the position of the strips on the plate, a head adapted to indent a plurality of the strips simultaneously, and hand operated means for delivering a blow of con stant force to said head. a

15. In combination, means for feeding ad dress plates, a reciprocable head above such fed plate, a hammer for delivering a blow on the head, a shank for the hammer slidably mounted, a sleeve surrounding the shank, gearing for moving the sleeve downwardly, aspring within the sleeve adapted to be so constrained against the hammer, and latch mechanism engaging the shank and preventing downward movement of the hammer until the spring has been constrained to a definite point.

16. In a machine of the character described, the combination of an anvil for address plates, a vertically reciprocable head located above the anvil, a shank carrying a hammer, a sleeve surrounding the shank. and having an abutment, a spring within the sleeve and about the shank, the lower end of said spring bearing downwardly against the hammer and the upper end upwardly against the abutment, hand-operated gearing for lowering thesleeve, a latch pin normally restraining the shank, and mechanism operated by the'downward movement of the sleeve to withdraw the latch pin whereby the spring causes the hammer to deliver a constant blow.

17. In a machine of the character described, the combination of a magazine for address plates, a vertically reciprocable head located alongside of the magazine, mechanism for feeding the bottommost plate in the magazine into position beneath the head, a hammer above thehead, a shank carrying the hammer, a sleeve surrounding the shank, a compression spring within the sleeve and above the shank, the lower end of said spring bearing downwardly against the hammer, said sleeve having rack teeth, a gear meshing with the rack teeth, a hand lever for operating the gear, a latch pin normally restraining the shank, and mechanism operated by the downward movement of the sleeve to causes the hammer to deliver a constant blow against the head.

18. The combination, with means for supporting a holder carrying on one face a plurality of surmounting printing strips, of

means for feeding the holder with the strips, and means for simultaneously engaging the edges of a plurality of such strips and indenting them to bind them onto the holder.

19. The combination with means for supporting a holder carrying on one face a plurality of printing strips, of means for feeding said holder with its strips, a hammer acting toward such face and adapted to engage a plurality of such strips, and means to deliver a blow of constant force to the hammer to bind the strips onto the holder.

20. The combination of a magazine for address plates having surmounting printing strips side by side on one face thereof, a feeding device adapted to feed plates with their strips one after another from the magazine, and mechanism operating simultaneously on a plurality of printing strips on a fed plate to bind said strips in place thereon.

21; The combination with an anvil for supporting an address plate, a head above the anvil, a hammer above the head, a spring adapted to act against the hammer, latch mechanism restraining the hammer, means for constraining the spring and releasing the latch, and means for feeding an address plate into position between the anvil and head.

22. The combination of a spring and ham mer for delivering a blow of constant force, an anvil opposite the hammer for receiving said blow, a guideway leading to the region between'the hammer and anvil, mechanism for feeding address plates along the guideway into said region, and means for constraining the spring and then releasing the hammer.

23. The combination of means for feeding address plates equipped on one face with a plurality of printing strips side by side, a head having a plurality of spaced surfaces adapted to engage different strips in one operation of the head, and means for forcing said head toward such face to distort a plurality of strips to bind them to the plate.

In testimony whereof, I hereunto affix my signature.

WILLIAM R. ALLEN. 

